In 2007-08, Manufacturing and Professional, scientific and technical services were the main contributors to total human resources devoted to R&D, at 37% and 27% respectively.

Financial and insurance services recorded the largest increase in human resources devoted to R&D from 2006-07, up 792 person years of effort (PYE), followed by Manufacturing and Construction (up 553 PYE and 550 PYE respectively).

Business human resources devoted to R&D, by selected industries(a)

EMPLOYMENT SIZE

Businesses with 200 or more employees accounted for 27,700 PYE (56%) of total human resources devoted to R&D in 2007-08, while those with 0-4 employees contributed 1,436 PYE (3%). Businesses with 5-19 employees and 0-4 employees recorded the largest growth in PYE from 2006-07, at 9% and 8% respectively.

TYPE OF RESOURCE

Researchers continued to be the main type of human resource devoted to R&D (52% of total PYE) in 2007-08. Technicians reported the largest absolute growth from 2006-07 (up 1,098 PYE).

FOREIGN OWNERSHIP

In 2007-08, as for business expenditure on R&D, wholly Australian owned businesses made the largest contribution to human resource effort at 25,587 PYE, while businesses with Greater than 50% foreign ownership contributed the largest increase in human resource effort devoted to R&D (up 1,639 PYE) from 2006-07.

Business human resources devoted to R&D, by level of foreign ownership(a)

2006-07

2007-08

PYE

PYE

Wholly Australian owned (0%)

23 950

25 587

Greater than 0% and less than 10%

2 472

2 577

10% to 50%

4 843

4 249

Greater than 50%

15 062

16 701

Total

46 327

49 114

(a) A definition of foreign ownership was not provided to survey respondents and data were accepted as reported.